puce

Forms

puce f (plural puces)^[1] Old French pulce (about 1170), then puce from the 13th century, Picard puche.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French pulce, inherited from Latin pūlex (“flea”).^[2][3][5] Wiktionary traces the Latin word to Proto-Indo-European *plus- (“flea”).^[1] Rey notes instead that the Indo-European languages have similar names for the flea, such as Ancient Greek ψύλλα (psúlla), Lithuanian blusà and Old English flēah, which cannot be brought back to one original.^[3]

Cognate with Italian pulce, Old Occitan piuze, Spanish pulga and Portuguese pulga.^[6][7] The word survives almost everywhere in Gallo-Romance, except in the eastern south, where dialects call the flea “the black one”.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pulce appears about 1170 in the Livre des Rois, meaning the small jumping parasite of people and animals: “cume uns chienz mors u une pulce” (like a dead dog or a flea).^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The oldest figurative phrase is avoir or mettre la puce à l'oreille (13th century, avoir la puche en l'oreille), which first meant to feel or arouse amorous desire, until the 16th century, and then to be or make uneasy, suspicious (17th century).^[3][2] Secouer les puces à quelqu'un and remuer les puces “to beat someone” are both found in 1640.^[3]

From its size, the word was applied to other small animals (puce de mer 1562, puce d'eau 1764) and familiarly to a small person, often as an endearment (ma puce).^[3][2] Marché aux puces, or simply les puces, a flea market, spread in the early 20th century (1937 in the TLFi).^[3][2] In electronics it has meant a silicon chip since 1960, a translation of English chip, perhaps from the leg-like connections, and became common with the carte à puce.^[3][2] As a colour, a dark reddish brown, it was fashionable under Louis XVI (1775) and English took it as puce in the 1770s.^[3][8]

Timeline

• c. 1170 – Pulce in the Livre des Rois.^[2]
• Mid-13th century – Avoir la puche en l'oreille.^[2]
• c. 1316 – Mettre la puce en l'oreille in the Roman de Fauvel.^[2][7]
• 1562 – Puce de mer.^[2]
• 1640 – Secouer les puces, in Oudin.^[2][3]
• 1775 – The colour “puce”, in Bachaumont.^[2]
• 1779 – English colour de puce.^[8]
• 1937 – Marché aux puces.^[2]
• 1960 – An electronic chip.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A flea, a small brown jumping insect that lives on the blood of people and animals.^[9][10][2]
2. Mettre la puce à l'oreille: to make someone suspicious or uneasy.^[9][10]
3. (familiar) A small person, and a term of endearment: ma puce.^[3][1]
4. Les puces, le marché aux puces: a flea market.^[3][2]
5. (electronics) A silicon chip: une carte à puce.^[3][1]
6. (typography) A bullet.^[1]

Adjective

1. Dark reddish brown, puce (invariable).^[11][10][2]

Word family

• puceron
• épucer
• pucier

Related words

• Latin pūlex
• English puce

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 9, 522a
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6816
7. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b c Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
11. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)